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Untamed Vintage Pioneer HPM-100?

Hooking up the woofer and tweeter to the new crossover was easy peasy, but the midrange was another story since it resides in a sealed enclosure. At first I thought I would drill a new hole in the cardboard tubing and feed the new midrange wire leads to the driver. But upon further review, since the midrange can be disconnected from the factory crossover outside of the tube, I decided against drilling a new hole and instead tapped into the connectors. Electrical tape was my friend. Your mileage may vary.


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Finally, I had to figure out what to do with the terminal plate on the back of the speaker. I've never been a fan of the stock binding posts, but installing newer banana type connectors would require drilling out the holes which I didn't want to do.

So instead, I went to Ace Hardware and bought new terminal screws that I could use to attach the crossover input leads to the terminal plate (the screws from the factory crossover stayed on the old crossover to help it balance on the brace. They are spaced perfectly apart for this).

The screws are a metric #3 and I bought 3/4". Then I bought smaller hoop style connectors to attach to the inside of the plate as shown:

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As an aside, the MV Audio crossover design I chose was the one without the front panel attenuators. The super tweeter is not used.

With everything hooked up and the drivers reinstalled, now it's time for some listening tests.

Stay tuned.......
 
Sonic Analysis of the HPM-100 with the MV Audio Crossover
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Preamble: I've owned my HPM-100s for nearly a decade so I'm quite familiar with their signature characteristics. I am familiar with the upper midrange forward "west coast" voicing, the "beamy" woofer playing midrange, the bass bump at 65Hz, coherency issues, etc etc - all of which has been covered here ad nauseam. To compensate, I've experimented endlessly with placement (off-axis was always best), EQ, and the front panel attenuators trying to obtain the optimum tonal balance.

And just when I think I had it, I would listen to music on different speakers, then revisit the same songs on the HPM-100s only to come away a bit dissatisfied with my latest effort. Think of it as a labor of love - I've always loved the classic appearance of the HPM; in my opinion the aesthetics are A1 Vintage-Awesome. I just wanted the sonic performance to equally match the great looks.

Enter the MV Audio crossover: I stumbled upon the MV Audio crossover by accident. I'd just did a google search on the HPM-100 one day to see what the latest "chatter" was and found myself immersed in his writeup. For one, I thought his stock analysis was spot-on to my own observations, plus he said he was a musician (as am I - I've found most musicians I know have pretty good ears), and with the design tools at his disposal, I was interested in trying his new crossover.

Listening Impressions:
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Test amplification: Pioneer SX-1250 fully recapped

Test songs:

  • Fleetwood Mac - Warm ways, Never going back again
  • Fiona Apple - Sullen girl
  • Dire Straits - So far away, Your greatest trick, Brothers in arms
  • Basement Jaxx - Rendez-vu
  • Steely Dan - Home at last
  • Billie Eilish - ilomio
  • Eagles - I can't tell you why

I can say unequivocally this is the best I've ever heard the HPM-100 sound. Everything is so right! The coherency issues are gone, the "beamy-ness" is gone, the harshness of the "west coast" upper mids and treble are gone. As @z-adamson pointed out, the balance between the midrange and tweeter is spot-on. Imaging and depth are vastly improved. The system now has a very smooth, natural, vintage warmth and refinement. It does not sound like a modern speaker. Nor should it given the 45 year old driver technology. But, I honestly believe this is as good as the HPM-100 can possibly sound.

I cannot give a higher recommendation for this upgrade. The guy at MV Audio absolutely nailed it.
 
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z-adamson said:
Looks like we are on the same page.

A very big improvement. A very refined sound.
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Indeed. My only regret is not titling this thread, "ACHTUNG! Brand new HPM-100 Crossover is here!" There are so many HPM-100 owners here that may be interested in doing this.
 
made in china said:
Nearly 2 years later, do either of y'all still use this setup?
Any new impressions?
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Yes, mine are still in action. No regrets. A great set-up. A very good sound. I’ve used them on their own, with subs, in different rooms…..they have never come up short. I will very likely keep them in action for many more years. I don’t see them going anywhere.
 
z-adamson said:
Yes, mine are still in action. No regrets. A great set-up. A very good sound. I’ve used them on their own, with subs, in different rooms…..they have never come up short. I will very likely keep them in action for many more years. I don’t see them going anywhere.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response! I'm strongly considering this mod to my HPMs....
 
HPM-100's are not for everyone, but a bit of tweaking can make them pretty damned good! I have a few pair to modify, lol...
 
I swapped out my mids for a set of 900 mids, and while not an “earth shaking” difference, they do sound better than stock. Of course, this was several years ago, when people could still afford to buy vintage stereo stuff…
 
That's a plus, but curious if you upgraded the crossover capacitors prior to the switch???
 
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